President Obama’s Health and Human Services Department has flouted a law that would require them to report annually on the rise in welfare dependency over the last four years.
“Past issues of this report have provided Congress and the public with valuable information about Americans’ dependence on various public benefit programs [including food stamps and cash welfare],”a group of House and Senate Republicans wrote to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius yesterday. “HHS has failed to issue even one of these reports in the four years you have been Secretary. It also means that the 2009 annual report is over 1,000 days overdue.”
The lawmakers note that, since President Clinton signed the law requiring this annual report, “with the sole exception of 1999, this report was faithfully issued on an annual basis by Republican and Democratic Administrations alike,” prior to Obama’s election.
The House Ways and Means Committee noted recently that there are 16 million more recipients of food stamps or disability benefits than there were in January 2009, while there are 473,000 fewer people employed.
The lawmakers who signed this letter are: House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich.; House Ways and Means Committee chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich.; House Agriculture chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah; Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan.; Sen. Michael Enzi, R-Wyo.
